Birth Trauma
The consequences of birth trauma: a case
report of failure to thrive in an infant with cephalohematoma
and congenital torticollis. Anderson, C International Chiropractic
Association Review, Fall 2001 P 79-84.
This paper discusses
facial paralysis, brachial plexus damage, Erb’s Palsy,
torticollis and cephalohematoma (among others) as a consequence
of birth trauma.
Cephalohematoma is bleeding beneath the cranial
bones due to ripping of veins during delivery and affects
about 1% of newborns. This occurs as a result of prolonged
labor, vacuum extraction or a forceps delivery and generally
disappears after a few weeks or months.
The case presented is
of a 7 week-old-male brought to the chiropractor with complaints
of poor suck, little weight gain, torticollis and cephalohematoma.
The mother had taken the baby to a torticollis clinic where
the parents were told to stretch his neck with every diaper
change. It resulted in little change.
Chiropractic care consisted
of spinal adjustments to: C1, C2, T9, L5 and sacrum with craniosacral
therapy on the occipital bone, restoring movement to the parietal
and sphenoid bones.
After the first visit, the mother remarked
that the baby was sucking better, sleeping better and sleeping
longer. By two weeks of care, the hematomas decreased markedly
in size and the torticollis had resolved.
By the end of a month’s
care, there was almost complete resolution of the hematomas.
Failure
to thrive. Swaim RT. Gatrost A, Towne K ACA Journal of Chiropractic,
March 1990;27(3):63-65
This paper discusses the need for spinal
care in a failure to thrive baby: “If failure to thrive
is suspected in a pediatric patient the chiropractor must bring
up the matter with the parents as they may be unaware of anything
being wrong. Of course it almost goes without saying that
the child should be examined for vertebral subluxation as
a source of physiological dysfunctioning.”
Copyright 2004 Koren Publications, Inc. & Tedd
Koren, D.C.